Friday, February 23, 2007

A Prison Diary - Volume One - Belmarsh : Hell

I'm a fan of Jeffrey Archer, read most of his books and would like to review his book entitled A PRISON DIARY - BELMARSH. The moment when i first set eyes on this book, its a real life encounter of Mr Archer while he was framed for perjury sentence and sentenced to four years. He served his sentence at the first prison camp at Belmarsh. Archer records down his daily routines which he goes thru' in the prison camp, the kind of food he eats, the living conditions of his prison cell, the different in-mates that he sees each day although he doesn't put down their actual names for privacy sake. Each in-mate that he see each day, he will jot down the kind of crime they've committed. All prison in Briton does not trade in cash and hence they rely on battering. In-mates will exchange whatever they have on hand to things/favours which they require during their imprisonment. Interestingly, Archer will also try to include a picture of the various forms i.e. meal forms, picture of his cell etc..which he fills in during his stay to enlighten his readers. Another interesting sight to take note of are the Listeners, they are there to guide those prisoners who are finding prison life hard to come to terms with, especially those contemplating suicide.

On the Saturday of 21 JUL 01, Archer was escorted to the Cambridge Crematorium to see his late mother off together with his wife and 2 sons, it was a sad moment in his life and in about a few hours again was escorted back to prison life again. Family and friend were still trying to apply for an appeal against his sentence at that time. How do Archer spends most of his in prison, you may ask...He actually asked for some paper and pen and that was how he was able to jot down every single happenings in his cell and later posted out to his editor for compiling.